108: Chapter 108 The "Living Bodhisattva" of Jinling Women's College

After settling Professor Liu Guowei in Rabe's makeshift hospital, Chen Xi did not linger for a moment.

Like a drop of water merging into the ocean, he vanished silently into the crowded throngs of the International Safety Zone.

Navigating through several abandoned alleys, he entered the basement of a residential building that had been half-destroyed by bombing.

This was one of his temporary hideouts.

He opened the system panel.

On the list for the "Jinling Spark Project," a green checkmark had appeared next to Liu Guowei's name.

Immediately following it, the second name began to flicker with a faint red light.

Li Pei, twenty years old.

A student at Jinling Womens College of Arts and Sciences.

The girl in the photo had two braided pigtails, a shy smile, and clear eyes.

Behind her identity was a line of small text—"The future Mother of Applied Linguistics in the Dragon Kingdom."

(Jinling Women's College...)

The map provided by the "Great Wall" project team surfaced in Chen Xi's mind.

It was on the other side of the city.

He pulled up the hood of his Chameleon Cloak, and his figure dissolved into the darkness once more.

Nanjing had completely turned into a dead city.

The clamor and vice of the day were replaced after nightfall by a deeper, suffocating silence.

Not a single living soul could be seen on the streets.

There were only newspapers fluttering in the wind and stray dogs gnawing on corpses in the corners.

Like a true ghost, Chen Xi moved through the shadows of the broken walls and ruins.

It took him nearly two hours to reach the outskirts of Jinling Womens College of Arts and Sciences.

Here, it was a different scene entirely.

The college's high, Western-style walls had become the boundary separating life and death.

Outside the walls was hell.

Inside the walls was a massive, yet incredibly fragile, sanctuary for women.

Chen Xi lurked atop an abandoned bell tower, observing coldly.

He saw that the college's large iron gates were tightly shut.

Outside the gates, however, wandered a few drunken Japanese Army stragglers.

They didn't launch a full assault, but like a pack of hyenas waiting to scavenge a carcass, they occasionally shouted filthy insults in Japanese, trying to provoke the guards inside.

Suddenly.

The iron gate was pulled open just a crack from the inside.

A tall, slender middle-aged Caucasian woman stepped out from behind the gate.

She wore a dark long dress, her blonde hair tied in a bun at the back of her head. Her face appeared haggard from exhaustion, but in those blue eyes burned an inviolable, flame-like determination.

Minnie Vautrin.

Chen Xi had seen her photo and deeds in the "Great Wall" files.

This American missionary, known as the "Living Bodhisattva," was the Dean of Jinling Womens College of Arts and Sciences.

"Go away!"

Vautrin spread her arms like a wall, blocking the entrance firmly.

In a near-roar of accented Japanese, she shouted at the stragglers:

"This is American church property! It is part of the International Safety Zone! You have no right to enter!"

A leading Japanese Army corporal laughed contemptuously.

He stepped forward, attempting to push Vautrin aside.

"Enough nonsense! We know there are many pretty girls hidden inside! Let us in to have some fun!"

Vautrin did not retreat.

She straightened her already tall frame, using her body to push back hard against him, saying word by word:

"Only if you step over my dead body."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it possessed an unquestionable power.

The Japanese corporal was stunned.

Looking at the resolute, even slightly manic light in this white woman's eyes, he felt a momentary wave of cowardice.

The Soldiers behind him also looked at each other in hesitation.

They could kill any Chinese person without a second thought, but they still had reservations about laying hands on an American, especially one with a church background.

The stalemate lasted for a long time.

The corporal eventually cursed and led his men away.

Vautrin watched them disappear into the distance before her tense body finally relaxed.

She leaned against the cold iron gate, gasping for air, her face pale with lingering fear.

Chen Xi watched all of this silently from the shadows.

He gave this great woman a silent salute with his eyes.

After Vautrin returned inside, he leaped down from the bell tower and silently scaled the college wall.

The scene inside the walls was even more tragic than he had imagined.

On the playground, in the classrooms, and in the hallways—every space where a person could stand was packed with shivering women and children.

The air was thick with a sour, putrid smell of despair mixed with fear.

Muffled sounds of weeping came from all directions, like the whispers of countless wronged souls.

Chen Xi moved through the crowd.

He saw Vautrin, who had been like a warrior just moments ago, now kneeling on the ground, gently bandaging a little girl's wound while humming a lullaby.

Food in the college had long since run out.

All the refugees relied on the tiny amounts of grain Vautrin painstakingly traded for using her own savings and connections to barely survive.

The situation here was a hundred times more difficult than at Rabe's side.

Chen Xi activated the system's thermal imaging scan, quickly searching for his target among the dense crowd.

Soon enough.

He found the girl named Li Pei in a corner of the teaching building.

She and several other female students were sharing their meager portion of rice porridge with the younger children around them.

Her face was filled with a terror and paleness unbefitting her age.

But her hands were exceptionally steady as she fed the children.

In her eyes, a fleeting flash of gratified light appeared as she watched the children eat.

It was a radiance of humanity, still stubbornly growing even in this apocalyptic hell.

Chen Xi stood in the shadows, watching silently.

He knew he couldn't simply take her away alone.

This crumbling, unsinkable ark...

And these people who emitted a faint light in the darkness...

They also needed his protection.